Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted May 24, 2012 Moderator Share Posted May 24, 2012 Just got through watching this,,,,and have to write it off as an unwatchable mess. The problem, as always, can be summed up with two words - Prachya Pinkaew. How this guy has managed to get a reputation as a decent martial arts movie maker is beyond me, if people mention movies like 'Fist of Legend' they talk about Yuen Woo Ping's choreography, not Gordon Chan's directing skills. The same should go for Pinkaew's three biggest successes - 'Ong Bak', 'Tom Yum Goong', & 'Chocolate'. All three movies share one element - the action is choreographed by Panna Rittikrai. Yet for some reason people seem to get excited when Pinkaew's name is attached to something, the latest example being that he's been signed up to direct a Tekken prequel. The guy is a poor movie maker, simple as that, if anyone is in doubt watch his Hollywood debut, the Kevin Bacon starring 'Elephant White', and should there still be an element of doubt in your mind, watch 'The Kick'. As with most of his movies, it revolves around something being stolen, this time an ancient artifact. The spin on this movie of course was that it's a Korean co-production, and so all of the main stars who make up the taekwondo family are Korean and not Thai. Sadly Korean & Thai humor doesn't really mix very well, so while you wait for the action all you're left with is teeth gratingly bad comedy which makes Dean Shek a comedic genius in comparison. Unfortunately the action is just as bad, and as a member mentioned before, a lot of it consists of the good guy doing several twists in the air for what seems like forever, while the bad guy stands there motionless waiting to be kicked. The son does have talent, he moves well and is very acrobatic, but here he's just annoying, in a Mike B kind of way. The fights also feature that annoying 'soft' sound effect design, so that when contact is made it hardly has any impact for the viewer, for me when someone gets punched or kicked I want to hear it! & Jija, she hardly registers, that's now one good movie and two bad ones, she needs to hurry up & crank out 'Tom Yum Goong 2' & 'Chocolate 2' to even things out. In conclusion....avoid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Keung Posted May 24, 2012 Member Share Posted May 24, 2012 teeth gratingly bad comedy which makes Dean Shek a comedic genius in comparison. He isn't? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Tigerstyles Posted May 24, 2012 Member Share Posted May 24, 2012 Dean Shek the man the legend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Keung Posted May 24, 2012 Member Share Posted May 24, 2012 Damn right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member jmungus Posted June 5, 2012 Member Share Posted June 5, 2012 nice. OAB`s DS-comment would push my buttons as well. dont diss the shekster. if i had to surf hell, i`d want dean shek as my wingman. if i were your typical grumpy 4 year old picky on my vegetables, i`d want dean shek to force feed em to me. the list might be endless; right chuck norris ?!? im with OAB tho, screenplay crap & action bleh. pinkaew`s incompetent. rittikrai should stick to action choreo and pinkaew to slicing tomatoes or whatever. dont steal the directors chair from actual directors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member stuntpeople Posted June 6, 2012 Member Share Posted June 6, 2012 Pinkaew's a hack. He shoots wide from the side, he shoots close from the side, and cuts back and forth and calls it editing. What a joke. Gimme Borne editing instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member The Last Dragon Posted June 6, 2012 Member Share Posted June 6, 2012 I agree, if you give Eric and the Stunt people a big budget, marketing, and the directors chair then some other directors would be out of the job lol. Glad we still got you and Gareth Evans keeping Great Martial Arts movies alive. Looking forward to Death Grip on Blue Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member daisho2004 Posted June 15, 2012 Member Share Posted June 15, 2012 I'm ordering mine today, from my Guy on ebay who I buy a lot of DVD from overseas. Synopsis: NOTE: THE KICK IS THE NEWEST FILM FROM PRACHYA PINKAEW THE DIRECTOR OF ONGBAK AND TONY JAA'S MENTOR. IT IS ACTUALLY A COLLABORATION BETWEEN THAILAND AND KOREA. THE FILM CENTERS AROUND A FAMILY OF TAEKWONDO MARTIAL ARTISTS WHO RUN AFOUL OF POM AND HIS GANG OF THIEVES WHEN THEY FOIL HIS LATEST HEIST. ALSO FEATURED IS YANIN THE GIRL FROM CHOCOLATE AND RAGING PHOENIX, ONCE AGAIN PROVING HOW VERSATILE SHE IS . THE MARTIAL ARTS CHOREOGRAPHY WAS DONE BY PRACHYA PINKAEW AND ANY FANS OF HIS OTHER ACTION FILMS WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED! Moon is a Taekwondo master running an old Taekwondo gym in Bangkok. All five members of his family are also masters of Taekwondo in different styles: his wife Yoon in cooking style, son Taeju in dancing style, daughter Taemi in soccer style, and the youngest Typhoon can break anything with his strong forehead. Moon wants his children to be Taekwondo coaches to take over his gym in the future. However, regardless of their father's will, Taeju wants to be a famous pop singer and Taemi is only interested in her secret crush at school. One day, Moon's family encounters a group of treasure thieves on the street, and are soon involved in a fight with them. With their impressive martial art skills, Moon's family is able to defeat the thieves and take back the stolen treasure. Pom, the leader of the gang, is the only one to escape and threatens revenge. Moon's family becomes more popular in the public eye, not knowing when or where Pom will get his revenge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted June 16, 2012 Moderator Share Posted June 16, 2012 PRACHYA PINKAEW THE DIRECTOR OF ONGBAK AND TONY JAA'S MENTOR THE MARTIAL ARTS CHOREOGRAPHY WAS DONE BY PRACHYA PINKAEW :ooh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BaronK Posted June 16, 2012 Member Share Posted June 16, 2012 THE MARTIAL ARTS CHOREOGRAPHY WAS DONE BY PRACHYA PINKAEW Wrong. He has never been a choreographer. The action was done by a korean fellow and the Korean Tigers demo team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member daisho2004 Posted July 23, 2012 Member Share Posted July 23, 2012 OK I just watch this the other day and I will say I thought it was pretty good, not great but watchable. Yes Prachya Pinkaew has gone up & down with his movies. And I did like Elephant White myself. This movie had a lot of the same elements that he uses in all his movies, comedy, and fighting onto of Elephants etc.but the Taekwondo had some very great kicking in it. It is worth a watch this movie to me would be more like Raging Phoenix and marketed towards a younger Audience. But I will never classify him as a great director yet, he is a good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member mark187 Posted July 24, 2012 Member Share Posted July 24, 2012 i saw this a few weeks ago, and I have to say it was much better than I expected! thoroughly entertaining, and always great to see Jeeja! Ye Ji-Won left an impression too! by the way, which dvd are people finding to be the ideal one so far? I got the Taiwanese version Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member kingofkungfu2002 Posted July 24, 2012 Member Share Posted July 24, 2012 which dvd are people finding to be the ideal one so far? I got the Taiwanese version The HK dvd is out in a couple of weeks: http://www.yesasia.com/global/the-kick-dvd-english-subtitled-hong-kong-version/1031173722-0-0-0-en/info.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member mark187 Posted September 2, 2012 Member Share Posted September 2, 2012 does anybody have the HK DVD or has seen it? i want to know if the picture quality is any better than the Taiwanese DVD? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member jmungus Posted September 2, 2012 Member Share Posted September 2, 2012 btw, i`d advice against this flick. not that its straight up horrible, but to me it was a total snooze-fest. Like a tad below "watchable blehness" or..... 3.5/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member FrankBolte Posted September 3, 2012 Member Share Posted September 3, 2012 whole movie..but no subs... thought it was boring! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8ZgslPN5OQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted November 28, 2012 Moderator Share Posted November 28, 2012 Despite my objections, this movie was chosen as the opening feature of November's Action Month for the weekly 'Cinema on the Park' event, held at the Korean Culture Office here in Sydney. After a little bit of arm wrangling (& kicking), my not so kind review finally got the go ahead to be published....check it out here! - http://koreanfilmfestivalinaustralia.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/action-month-review-kick-2011.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted December 2, 2012 Administrator Share Posted December 2, 2012 Okay, it's rare that I find my taste for films varying much from my buddy One-Armed Boxer. But this time I feel completely different. Perhaps because I went into the film with low expectations? Prachya Pinkaew generally makes poorly put together films that feature great action. TOM YUM GOONG for instance, I'd rate the film 3/10, but I'd give it 10/10 action. So I thought "Okay, bad director, Tae Kwon Do action, and I hear it's a family film." I was in the mood for something lite, but with a lot of action, so I gave it a shot. It's true that the comedy is mostly sophomoric, and that the film isn't exactly directed with any kind of great panache, but I have to admit- it entertained the hell out of me! I never felt bored, it wasn't so bad it was annoying (which is how I felt about ELEPHANT WHITE), and the performers displayed some fantastic skills. I felt like when the kid realized that he could combine his dancing and martial arts skills together, that the mash-up looked cool and was very amusing. It seemed obvious that he would come back to this in the end to win the big fight. You see, the father was pushing his son to train in TKD to try for the Olympic gold. He was trying to live out his un-realized dreams through his son, who "just wants to dance." So of course the kid would show his father that his dancing was worthy and use it to save everybody, right? No. That didn't happen. It's like they just forgot about that whole idea. In fact, they show them reconciling, but then it ends showing that the kid went on to win the gold! So his Dad never told him about the dancing competition callback he intercepted on the phone, and must have been like "Wow, you saved us. I love you son. Now stop that stupid dancing and get back to your TKD training so that I can live out my unfulfilled dreams through you!" But anyway, it had plenty of action, Dirty Balls did his thing, JeeJa smashed some heads, and despite the tired inter-family cliches, I really dug it. Anybody know if/when this is getting an official DVD/BD release? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted December 2, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 2, 2012 Okay, it's rare that I find my taste for films varying much from my buddy One-Armed Boxer. But this time I feel completely different. Perhaps because I went into the film with low expectations? Ha ha....it had to happen some day! I think expectations definitely had a lot to do with it...I went into it expecting a Korean movie with Thai action, instead I got a Thai movie with Korean action...with comedy that for the most part left me poker faced. Had I gone into it expecting a light hearted family flick with some fighting thrown it, I'm sure I would have felt completely differently. The irony is of course, if I knew that, I probably would never have watched it in the first place. Anybody know if/when this is getting an official DVD/BD release? Several versions of this are already out, the main one of course being the Korean release - http://www.yesasia.com/global/the-kick-dvd-korea-version/1030767729-0-0-0-en/info.html Hong Kong put out an English subbed Blu-Ray - http://www.yesasia.com/global/the-kick-blu-ray-english-subtitled-hong-kong-version/1031173721-0-0-0-en/info.html & a few other countries have put out English subbed editions which, as usual, come in a little cheaper than the Korean version, the lowest priced being the Taiwan edition - http://www.yesasia.com/global/the-kick-dvd-english-subtitled-taiwan-version/1030967559-0-0-0-en/info.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Drunken Monk Posted January 21, 2013 Member Share Posted January 21, 2013 This finally sees a US release on April 2nd... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted January 21, 2013 Administrator Share Posted January 21, 2013 This finally sees a US release on April 2nd... Thanks to One-Armed Boxer and Drunken Monk for the info. I'll pick up the R1 release of this to support domestic DVD sales. Hope they release it properly (original soundtrack, decent subs, uncut). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Drunken Monk Posted January 21, 2013 Member Share Posted January 21, 2013 Thanks to One-Armed Boxer and Drunken Monk for the info. I'll pick up the R1 release of this to support domestic DVD sales. Hope they release it properly (original soundtrack, decent subs, uncut). Even if it's uncut, has the original soundtracks and decent subs, we have to put up with that terrible cover art, haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted January 21, 2013 Administrator Share Posted January 21, 2013 Even if it's uncut, has the original soundtracks and decent subs, we have to put up with that terrible cover art, haha. I promise I'm not just trying to be contrary in this thread... but I think the cover art is okay. At least it is a depiction of the main character that's actually in this film, and he's kicking as per the title! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member tenebre Posted January 21, 2013 Member Share Posted January 21, 2013 wtf movie are they calling "the Protector 2"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Keung Posted January 22, 2013 Member Share Posted January 22, 2013 Tom Yum Goong 2, probably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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